Mature males have violet-blue eyes and are uniformly coloured black, however, light diffraction by the surface texture of the feathers results in an almost metallic sheen giving a deep shiny blue appearance.

[2] The satin bowerbird is common in rainforest and tall moist sclerophyll forest in eastern Australia from southern Queensland to Victoria.

Like all Ptilonorhynchidae, satin bowerbirds are predominantly frugivorous as adults, though they also eat leaves and a small amount of seeds and insects.

[5] Satin bowerbirds are not in the least finicky in their food preferences, and have taken extremely readily to the numerous plants introduced since European settlement.

Indeed, they are a major dispersal agent for a number of weedy plants, such as camphor laurel, the European olive and various species of privet.

[7] Males build specialised stick structures, called bowers, which they decorate with blue, yellow, and shiny objects, including berries, flowers, snail shells, and plastic items such as ballpoint pens, drinking straws and clothes pegs.

The young are able to fly three weeks after hatching, but remain dependent on the female for another two months, finally dispersing at the beginning of the southern winter (May or June).